Thinking of travelling is something, which makes us excited. But there are prior things that you need to keep in mind, starting from the preparing of visa documents to packing of bags. Apart from this there is one such thing, which is considered 'the most essential factor' before travelling i.e. travel vaccinations.
Ideally, visit to a travel health clinic should be prior 4 to 6 weeks before the trip. It is important to do so because most of the vaccines take time to become effective in the body. Especially, when you are taking your infant along with you on the trip, you need to be more careful about the travel vaccinations given to them. Although, you might have done the routine vaccination of children on schedule, but travel at an early age for infant needs accelerated schedule of vaccination.
Now, let’s have a look at the vaccinations, which are needed to be given to the infant before you head on to the trip:
- Hepatitis B vaccine (HBV): Hepatitis is caused by blood transfusion or due to contact with people who are open to skin lesions (scabies, scratched insect bites). Younger children can be given this vaccine in specific doses i.e. 3 or 4, but in regular interval of weeks.
- Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis: These infections are endemic to those parts of the countries, where immunization is at low level. Optimum protection for children is done by 3 to 4 doses of DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis vaccine), which is given to them who are at the age of 2, 4, 6, and 15-18 months.
- Measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR): Measles is an endemic disease, found in most of the countries, and is highly risky for the infants. Thus, two doses of MMR are recommended by the travel doctor to the children who are at the age of 12 months.
- Yellow fever: It is disease commonly found in certain areas of Africa and South America. Thus people heading towards these countries specially needs to get their infant (who are above the age of 9 months) vaccinated.
- Other required vaccinations: Apart from these, there are few more vaccinations like typhoid, Japanese encephalitis, and rabies, which the infants need to take if they are heading to particular countries where the disease are spread. But for these vaccinations, detailed discussions with the travel doctor must be carried out, as infants might cause some heath issues with these vaccinations.
Before heading for the trip, get travel safety tips click here